Two Sides of the Same Hill
Tam, Duren and Calad just came out of Hunter's office. They didn't like what they heard, not a bit.
Tam was visibly upset. Out of all of them, he liked Saki the most. To hear that they may have to distance themselves to Saki's clan filled him with great dismay. For the first time in a long time, when he met Saki, he felt unexplainable excitement.
He was hesitant to give that feeling up. Hunter was being an old woman but he did not want to tell him that to his face.
Calad broke the silence.
"You were there, Duren. What really happened?" he asked the chief security.
"I followed the plan to perfection. I was connected to everyone on the team. I sensed nothing out of whack. The fuck up obviously came from the other side," he spat disgustedly.
"I get that. I meant in the room itself, what happened?" pressed Calad.
"I had a hard time hiding from that fucking geezer Sadao had for a secretary. We kept staring at each other in the dark. Do you know how fucking disconcerting that was?" he fumed.
"How did that get away from you?" Tam interrupted.
"I did not expect Sadao to make a move at all. It was taking all my concentration to keep track of Hiroshi. That fucker kept vanishing from my sight. Then the arrow came out of nowhere. When Sadao brought out the tanto, it broke my focus a little and I acted without thought. I did what came natural. I protected Hunter from an attack," Duren defended himself.
"That makes sense but you should have known that Hunter needed no protection. He even insisted that you stay out of the room, remember? If you did not disobey his order, we would not have this problem now," Tam pointed out much to Duren's annoyance.
"We are Tails. It is our duty to protect the Fox. Orders or no orders, I would stick close to Hunter to make sure that he is safe. It has nothing to do with whether I trust in his abilities or not," Duren explained passionately.
The others understood. They are all tails, after all.
"Alright, our bad. Water under the bridge. Now, do we follow orders or do we trust our instincts?" Calad jovially asked.
"We were ordered to stay out of it and I do not plan to anger the boss, Hamarr or that annoying monster Damos," Tam declared.
"You think that so-called traitor is within our midst?" asked Calad.
"I don't, but I sincerely hope so. That way, I can personally twist his leg and make him walk backwards for the rest of his life," Duren said between clenched teeth.
"You have a weird sense of humor my friend. Why not turn it sideways and make him walk like a crab?" Calad grinned.
"Both of you are weird," said Tam disgustedly.
"I don't know about you but since they practically asked us to go on a vacation, why not join me for a couple of rounds? My treat," said Calad.
He did not have to ask twice. They all rode their bikes and went on a little road trip.
The attack came after they had been riding for an hour. Duren cursed himself for not suspecting the black car that had been tailing them for a half hour now.
The black car suddenly sped up and when it was about to overtake them, its windows opened and sprayed them with bullets.
With their supernatural reflexes, the three bikes simultaneously slowed down and the bullets hit nothing but empty air.
"Did that car look a bit like Yakuza to you?" asked Calad of the speeding car ahead of them.
"That, or government. I can't even tell the difference," Duren squinted at the car.
"Let's ask them," Tam simply said and sped up after the car. The two followed almost simultaneously.
The bikes were faster than the car but the three bored generals wanted entertainment and they toyed with it for a couple of miles, weaving in and out of the bullets' path.
When it swerved into a side road, they stopped and conferred with each other.
"Do we still follow?" asked Calad.
"Of course. Those people want us dead and now, I also want them dead," said Duren.
"I know this road. It leads to a dead end. They could be lying in ambush. Why don't you two go back and inform the boss about what happened? Let me do this one," Tam commanded the two.
"Why you?" asked the obviously upset Duren.
"Because out of the three of us, I am the most clear headed. You might grind them into dog meat before they could talk," explained Tam.
"Right now, I am so irritated that I would grind them even finer," Calad exclaimed.
"See what I mean? Go now, this would not take long. Get a car. I would not want to have to carry all of them on my bike," insisted Tam and the two reluctantly went back.
"By the way, what's at the end of the road?" asked Calad.
"A shrine," was the short answer and Tam rode confidently into the side road.
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Sadao certainly looked calmer as soon as they entered the vicinity of the Phoenix Shrine. His aura was cleaner and his whole manner was more relaxed and this pleased Saki to no end.
She liked this shrine even as a child. The trees exude a friendly vibe and the birds are close to tame that they don't even fly at the sight of a human.
Strangely, Saki can hear no birds today. She paid it no mind and followed her uncle into the steps.
Their bodyguards followed closely.
Saki, as was her habit, tapped her walking stick to the ground and looked behind their bodyguards for anything unusual.
The sound that came back to her was broken and discordant. The birds.
There were no birds!
She shouted a warning to Sadao who immediately drew his sword.
The person farthest from Saki did not react quickly and he was the first to fall.
Saki blocked the shuriken with her stick, swung it in one smooth motion and sent the star blade back to the thrower.
Even as the deadly star flew back, Saki jumped to follow it and slashed at another attacker before that one had any clue that their ambush failed.
Sadao stood at the apex of the stairs and calmly parried a sword stroke. He slightly turned and hit the black garbed person with his shoulder and sent him flying down.
"Uncle!" Saki slashed at one more attacker and bounded the stairs to where Sadao was.
The bodyguards were hard pressed but held on. Only one more was wounded but the others are otherwise unharmed.
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Tam heard the commotion and climbed the side of the hill. The shrine is at the top.
He can hear shouts of alarm and he was surprised to hear a familiar voice.
Saki!
He drew his twin daggers and ascended faster.
They were alert and seemed to be on the lookout. These were not the ones who attacked them but they obviously had something bad planned against Saki.
He did not wait for them to detect his presence. He killed the three oblivious assassins in one swing. He was on the move again before they hit the ground.
The one he was after were higher up the hill and they were all scampering up as fast as they could.
They are almost at the shrine and he could hear sounds of a battle near the top of the stairs partially hidden by the trees.
He reached the side of the shrine at almost the same time Saki climbed to where Sadao was standing.
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Saki's eyes could not believe what they saw. She drew Sadao to her side to protect him from the attacking Tam.
Tam was taken aback at being thwarted. His eyes showed doubt and Saki smirked at him.
"Hi Tam! Fancy meeting you here," Saki said casually.
"Hello Saki. I would stay and chat but I have pressing business elsewhere," he said and went away running. She felt sick to her stomach. She liked Tam so much.
After the last attacker fell, they all proceeded to tie the survivors.
No sooner than they finished tying them up, one by one hung their head like they fainted.
One of the bodyguards looked inside the mouth of one and disgustingly reported "Cyanide!"
Saki was not really listening. She was staring at the tattoo at the back of one of the fallen men.
It was a Fox.
She wiped her bloody sword and looked at her Uncle.
There was no question or doubt in his eyes.
Saki's head exploded in anger. She nodded at Sadao's unspoken words.